embryodead
Caliph
As some may remember I tried to resurrect Yoda's MEM, one of my favorite mods, back in 2004. It eventually became basically a new mod, but it stayed on my computer since I had a rather long break from Civ. After I came back I've re-resurrected it, and at this point the mod is nearing completion. Right now, together with Yoda Power, we're working on more features and missing gameplay stuff. I'm also trying to fill in some leaderhead/unit gaps (the attempts have been posted here: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=201802 ), and round up the background pedia. I'll be posting more information gradually; comments good and bad, questions and suggestions are all welcome 
It's never too late to change stuff, and there's still some work to do when it comes to historical part.
Note: most screenshots here have thumbnails because of the size, just click on each for a full picture.
Idea
I was torn between working on a mod and a scenario. I generally prefer mods due to their replay value, but scenarios give much more ground for special features that can only work with pre-placed cities, resources and modified victory conditions. There's also the issue of historical accuracy which can be portrayed much better in a scenario, whereas a mod based on a historical period is doomed to raise suspicions among the historians Eventually I settled with a mod that comes in several variants. In short, you can play:
- on a random map
- on a clean pre-made map (most likely more than one to choose from)
- on a populated pre-made map with modified civs, rules and victory conditions (a.k.a. conquest/scenario)
The default 110x130 map for the mod, by Yoda, after some tweaking. It's just about the right size (does not require a next-gen computer to handle), has varied, realistic terrain and it's fun to play with anything between 16 and 31 civs (I mostly play with 31):
Civs
There are 31 playable medieval states, each with some special units, features, religion (which determines the availability of some different improvements, wonders, units, governments etc.) and mercenary units based on historical location. Some civs are more apt for a specific victory (e.g. Cordova and Burgundy for cultural), but not limited to, at this point. I cannot decide if this should be a mod feature (in such case, only civs like Portugal, Castile and Venice would be able to win through expedition (SS) etc.) or leave it generic and try to do it on a scenario level only, especially since the lack of VP-scoring in a mod rules out some of the possible features (like a trade victory).
The list for the basic (random & clean Europe map) version is:
Northern group: England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden
European group: France, Burgundy, Castile, Portugal, Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Rus, Novgorod
Mediterranean group: Aragon, Italy, Sicily, Venice
Byzantine/Balkan group: Byzantines, Bulgars, Serbia
Middle-Eastern group: Armenia, Khazaria, Turks, Tatars, Abbasids, Fatimids, Cordova, Almohads
Pedia entry for Lithuania
This represents the most important states from the whole timeline (700-1550 AD) the mod takes place in. In other words, a vanilla-like epic game. Scenario version(s), placed in a more specific point of time, will have a slightly different set of civs to represent that given period. The cultural division is meant to provide visual variety (cities, buildings etc.). The division by religion (Christianity, Islam and Khazar Judaism) is more important gameplay-wise.
Pedia entry for Religion
Techs
The tech tree is fairly normal, it spans 4 eras and has some religion- and civ-specific branches. Advancement is based on some research to achieve at least an approximate accuracy with the historical timeline. The Pikeman comes actually long *after* the Knight etc. The timeline is roughly from after the Migration Period is over, to Renaissance (700-1550). There are some stretches of course, like the presence of Hagia Sofia (fortunately as one of the earliest wonders), but who can imagine Middle Ages without such an obvious symbolic building?
Viking Age (~700-1050)
High Middle Ages (~1050-1250)
Late Middle Ages (~1250-1450)
Renaissance (~1450-1550)
Other information
So far there's 35 Great Wonders, 24 Small Wonders, 41 City Improvements, 10 Governments and a balanced set of units (enough to span through 4 eras, with unique and culture-specific units, but not enough to cause the "hypertext links exceeded" error on any of the resources).
Basic version includes all victory conditions for all kingdoms, including the "Space Ship" equivalent and somewhat hypothetical "Diplomatic" one. That is, unless a viable solution turns up, in which case non-conquest/domination victory conditions would only be given to specific civs.
Overpopulation as well as city walls, harbors, ports etc. are responsible for spreading of diseases (replaces pollution).
Default terrain modpack is Sn00py's, modified for European setting. Below is a screenshot of a random map game, which shows, among other things, the Woodland terrain, a new idea by Yoda:
Full civilopedia: rules & background information for the most part based on the Absolute Source of Knowledge(TM) known as Wikipedia I'd say that for this purpose, it works well though:
Thanks to the awesome PediaIcons Checker tool, I can at least promise that there are no crash-to-desktop bugs. The mod has been played by me & YP so far; beta is possible if there's some interest.
It's never too late to change stuff, and there's still some work to do when it comes to historical part.Note: most screenshots here have thumbnails because of the size, just click on each for a full picture.
Idea
I was torn between working on a mod and a scenario. I generally prefer mods due to their replay value, but scenarios give much more ground for special features that can only work with pre-placed cities, resources and modified victory conditions. There's also the issue of historical accuracy which can be portrayed much better in a scenario, whereas a mod based on a historical period is doomed to raise suspicions among the historians
Eventually I settled with a mod that comes in several variants. In short, you can play:- on a random map
- on a clean pre-made map (most likely more than one to choose from)
- on a populated pre-made map with modified civs, rules and victory conditions (a.k.a. conquest/scenario)
The default 110x130 map for the mod, by Yoda, after some tweaking. It's just about the right size (does not require a next-gen computer to handle), has varied, realistic terrain and it's fun to play with anything between 16 and 31 civs (I mostly play with 31):
Civs
There are 31 playable medieval states, each with some special units, features, religion (which determines the availability of some different improvements, wonders, units, governments etc.) and mercenary units based on historical location. Some civs are more apt for a specific victory (e.g. Cordova and Burgundy for cultural), but not limited to, at this point. I cannot decide if this should be a mod feature (in such case, only civs like Portugal, Castile and Venice would be able to win through expedition (SS) etc.) or leave it generic and try to do it on a scenario level only, especially since the lack of VP-scoring in a mod rules out some of the possible features (like a trade victory).
The list for the basic (random & clean Europe map) version is:
Northern group: England, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden
European group: France, Burgundy, Castile, Portugal, Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Rus, Novgorod
Mediterranean group: Aragon, Italy, Sicily, Venice
Byzantine/Balkan group: Byzantines, Bulgars, Serbia
Middle-Eastern group: Armenia, Khazaria, Turks, Tatars, Abbasids, Fatimids, Cordova, Almohads
Pedia entry for Lithuania
This represents the most important states from the whole timeline (700-1550 AD) the mod takes place in. In other words, a vanilla-like epic game. Scenario version(s), placed in a more specific point of time, will have a slightly different set of civs to represent that given period. The cultural division is meant to provide visual variety (cities, buildings etc.). The division by religion (Christianity, Islam and Khazar Judaism) is more important gameplay-wise.
Pedia entry for Religion
Techs
The tech tree is fairly normal, it spans 4 eras and has some religion- and civ-specific branches. Advancement is based on some research to achieve at least an approximate accuracy with the historical timeline. The Pikeman comes actually long *after* the Knight etc.
The timeline is roughly from after the Migration Period is over, to Renaissance (700-1550). There are some stretches of course, like the presence of Hagia Sofia (fortunately as one of the earliest wonders), but who can imagine Middle Ages without such an obvious symbolic building?Viking Age (~700-1050)
High Middle Ages (~1050-1250)
Late Middle Ages (~1250-1450)
Renaissance (~1450-1550)
Other information
So far there's 35 Great Wonders, 24 Small Wonders, 41 City Improvements, 10 Governments and a balanced set of units (enough to span through 4 eras, with unique and culture-specific units, but not enough to cause the "hypertext links exceeded" error on any of the resources).
Basic version includes all victory conditions for all kingdoms, including the "Space Ship" equivalent and somewhat hypothetical "Diplomatic" one. That is, unless a viable solution turns up, in which case non-conquest/domination victory conditions would only be given to specific civs.
Overpopulation as well as city walls, harbors, ports etc. are responsible for spreading of diseases (replaces pollution).
Default terrain modpack is Sn00py's, modified for European setting. Below is a screenshot of a random map game, which shows, among other things, the Woodland terrain, a new idea by Yoda:
Full civilopedia: rules & background information for the most part based on the Absolute Source of Knowledge(TM) known as Wikipedia
I'd say that for this purpose, it works well though:
Thanks to the awesome PediaIcons Checker tool, I can at least promise that there are no crash-to-desktop bugs. The mod has been played by me & YP so far; beta is possible if there's some interest.
![[party]](/images/smilies/partytime.gif "Party [party]")
): what are you going to do with the lands of Moldavia and Wallachia? Which civ is going to get them? Or will they be empty lands to settle on? 
